Pipe Flashing With Tearable Elastic Rings for Adjustable Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional flashing pieces with pre-defined hole sizes are limited in accommodating various pipe diameters, requiring multiple sizes in stock and potentially obstructing water flow due to flat surfaces, complicating installation and water management in building construction.
Innovation Solution
A flashing piece with an outer rigid panel and an inner elastic portion featuring indented rings, allowing for adjustable through-holes creation by tearing the elastic material to fit different pipe sizes and accommodate cables, ensuring a watertight seal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a flashing piece has a pre-defined hole size, then it provides a simple structure and easy installation, but it is limited to pipe of a specific diameter and requires multiple sizes in stock
Solution Approach 1:
The flashing piece incorporates an inner portion made of flexible and elastic polymeric material that can be dynamically adjusted by tearing to create openings of various sizes. This dynamic adaptability allows a single flashing piece design to accommodate different pipe diameters without requiring multiple pre-defined hole sizes, resolving the contradiction between versatility and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the inner portion from a closed configuration to an opened configuration through controlled tearing. This parameter change enables the opening size to be adjusted according to the pipe diameter, allowing one flashing piece to serve multiple pipe sizes without increasing overall structural complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If a flashing piece has a flat front surface, then it provides a simple manufacturing process, but it may obstruct the flow of water down the sheeting of the secondary weather barrier
Solution Approach 1:
The outer portion of the flashing piece is designed with a curved front surface that follows the contour of the secondary weather barrier sheeting. This curvature prevents the flashing from creating a flat obstruction that would stop water flow, while still maintaining relatively simple manufacturing processes through molding techniques.
3Strength
If the inner portion is made of thick material for strength, then it provides structural integrity, but it prevents easy tearing to create the opening
Solution Approach 1:
The inner portion is designed with non-uniform thickness, featuring thicker regions for structural integrity and support, and thinner regions specifically at the indented rings where tearing is intended to occur. This local variation in thickness allows the material to maintain overall strength while enabling easy tearing at specific locations to create the opening.
Solution Approach 2:
Indented rings are pre-formed in the inner portion at locations where tearing is intended to occur. These pre-prepared features concentrate stress and guide the tearing process, allowing the installer to easily create an opening by applying minimal force at the indented locations, even though the surrounding material remains thick for structural support.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables flexible installation to fit various pipe and cable diameters without the need for multiple sizes, maintaining a watertight seal and facilitating easy installation by allowing adjustable hole sizes and accommodating different cable thicknesses.
Implementation Method 1
the inner portion is made of a second polymeric material that is more flexible and elastic than the outer material
Data Source
AI summary
A flashing piece, having an outer portion, defining an opening and made of a first polymeric material and an inner portion, joined to the outer portion about the opening and extending across and covering the opening. Also, the inner portion is made of a second polymeric material that is more flexible and elastic than the outer material and is in most places of a first thickness and further defines indented rings wherein the second polymeric material is sufficiently thinner than the first thickness to enable an installer to begin a tear by broaching an indented ring, thereby creating a flap of the second polymeric material, and then to propagate the tear about the indented ring by pulling on the resultant flap of the second polymeric material.